There’s a beautiful story in Salon about an “unskilled” high school graduate in 1965 who took a night shift job shoveling taconite in a steel mill so he could move out of his parent’s house and buy a car. Why is that a beautiful story? Because he could. As a [Keep reading]
The horrific death of journalist James Foley, amplified by his murderers’ ability to spread their act of terror via Internet video, touched off an immediate and familiar debate: Should governments and corporations ever restrict access to images of horror? Firms like Twitter made their choice immediately and did all they [Keep reading]
(I’m doing a new series with Credit.com called “Debt Collection Files.” Have you struggled with a debt collector, or any firm harassing you for a bill you thought was unfair? Please message me and I’ll look into as many cases as I can. This is the first installment) Eduardo Austin [Keep reading]
In the never-ending, “Things are getting better/no they’re not” debate, here’s a fresh data point, courtesy of the bright minds at the Financial Times. And it’s another sign America’s economy is perhaps more fragile than it appears, even to experts. Spending on “services” as opposed to “goods’ has plummeted in [Keep reading]
It’s been a bad few days for consumers’ data. One of the nation’s largest hospital operators, Community Health Systems Inc., said Monday that hackers from China stole personal information belonging to 4.5 million patients. While the data was pilfered between April and June of this year from Community Health System [Keep reading]
Can you change your luck in life just by thinking differently? Let me break free from this stream of bad news to talk for a big about The Plateau Effect again. If your summer didn’t bring what you’d hoped, and if the arrival of back-to-school sales is making you feel [Keep reading]
Buy food at a grocery store? You’ve probably been hacked. In the latest in a never-ending chain of credit card hacks, Albertson’s grocery stores announced Friday that its payment processor had been victim of a massive cybercrime. Impacted brands include Albertson’s, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw’s and Star Markets. The hack [Keep reading]
Consumers using Yahoo or AOL email addresses report less satisfaction with customer service encounters that those using Gmail or Apple “.mac” address, according to research released this week by Zendesk. Regardless of whatever email service you use, everyone should receive the same level of customer service. The experience of customers [Keep reading]
A funny thing happened the other day when I whimsically posted a picture of what seemed to be a $0 parking ticket I’d received in Iowa City, Iowa. NO ONE BELIEVED IT. Gotcha-weary drivers from all around the country — well, big cities anyway — seemed utterly convinced that [Keep reading]
Every high-profile death by apparent suicide launches a public discussion, often temporary, about the terrifying power of depression. Perhaps Robin Williams’ death can help generate additional discussion about the connection between financial trouble and suicide. It’s already far too early to know anything definitive about the brilliant comedian’s state of [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan